Svalbard - Part 3

02 Jul 2019 . category: Travel . Comments
#Svalbard

Day 3: Summer Adventure on a Snowmobile

Our main activity this day was Better Moments’ Summer Adventure on a Snowmobile, which included a hike up to the glacier and some snowmobiling on it! The tour company seemed like a more serious operation than Svalbard Wildlife Expeditions. Their office was very well-equipped and hunting-lodge-esque, and they didn’t charge us for renting shoes, which I believe were actually waterproof this time! Though note that this tour was almost twice the price for about half the time… We were also each issued ski goggles and a helmet for snowmobiling, as well as a sandwich. Our guide for this day was just generally more conservative/responsible, ensuring that we stayed together during the hike, asking us to walk single file through the slushy snow, etc. I appreciated this, but I think everyone else wished she was a bit free-er. She definitely didn’t have as many interesting stories as the guy from the previous day.

We actually left from basically the same spot as the day before on the outskirts of town, but then veered right instead of left, ending up on a different glacier. Thankfully, this also meant going over streams with makeshift bridges, so no wet shoes!

Our guide of course carried a rifle, though I’m not sure she ever loaded it? Perhaps we just didn’t notice or it was loaded to begin with? She did have a special snowmobile with its own rifle mount.

The hike up was pretty similar to the day before: some scrambling over loose rocks (the sliding around was not fun with blisters) giving way to slushy snow conditions before firmer snow on the glacier proper. My hiking boots were about ankle high which was low enough that snow keep getting into them. I regret not having picked up some gaiters, which I think they had on offer at the lodge. Would definitely recommend bringing some if you’re hiking through any sort of snow.

Eventually, we made it to where the snowmobiles were parked. They just leave them there all summer along with a bunch of gasoline, as there’s no snow-covered route back to town.

We actually saw a lot of snowmobiles haphazardly parked on pallets or even just gravel around Longyearbyen, dormant until the winter I guess?

Strangely, there are actually no roads between the various towns on the island, so in the summer when snowmobiling doesn’t work, your only options are traveling by boat (like what we took to Pyramiden) or helicopter.

None of us had snowmobiled before, but I think we all had a great time. We basically just drove in a straight line up the glacier, so it was pretty easy to get the hang of it. The snowmobile even had aggressively heated handlebars which I ended up turning off (I imagine they’re a godsend in the winter). I did have a bit of a dicey moment at the very top, where I ended up turning wider than I should have with a drop-off on one side. The guide told me she was a bit worried, and emphasized no more “James Bond maneuvers” for the way down. We stopped at the top for lunch, where Michal and Dore (the youngest and oldest members of the group, respectively) had a little snowball fight:

Here’s an actual photo of some snowmobiles from when we were going up the glacier:

We probably spent a little over an hour on the glacier snowmobiling, including a couple stops along the way and the longer one for lunch. If you visit in a colder season, you could do something more serious like a multi-day trip to Pyramiden or traveling to an ice cave.

The hike back down was pretty uneventful, though I did manage to lose Dore’s ski goggles. The guide was surprisingly chill about it, and said they’d just look out for it the next day. We’d also lost Duff’s sweater on the hike up and sadly failed to find it coming down. The fact that it was brown probably didn’t help… Overall, I would definitely recommend both Better Moments and this tour in particular. Even compared to other things we did on Svalbard, it was pricey, but very worthwhile.

Downtown and Svalbard brewery

After an afternoon break, we wandered around the “downtown” area a little bit. This was our first chance to go inside the grocery store / small mall area, which were honestly pretty nondescript. The most interesting part was the sign disallowing guns inside the store. You’re supposed to ask a staff member for access to the gun safe:

This is where Michal bought some of the hiker meals. And I got some sad-looking Thai curry instant noodles, so I could keep the birthday noodles tradition alive.

We then headed over to the Svalbard Brewery for a brewery tour and beer tasting. Unsurprisingly, this is the northernmost brewery in the world. And of course, guess who we saw immediately upon entering the tasting room? The grumpy Norwegian couple from dinner the previous evening! They were nice enough, even making conversation, but my sense is that they weren’t thrilled to see us. Especially because we again increased the noise in the room quite a bit (we were playing contact). I think “tour” is a bit innacurate for describing what we did, as we stayed in the tasting room the whole time (it did have a view of the brewing facilities). But, we still enjoyed hearing about the history of the brewery and sampling the five beers they produce. The most interesting details were about alcohol consumption in general. Alcohol on the island is sold tax-free, a huge win relative to the mainland as Norway’s alcohol tax is pretty high. However, residents’ purchasing is limited to two bottles of spirits, one of liqueur, and 24 bottles of beer per month (Michal remarked that this “wasn’t much”). You’ll note that wine is not mentioned in the restrictions. Apparently, this was in deference to the town’s wealthier residents, who proportionally drank more wine and champagne, and of course couldn’t stand to see their consumption restricted. Each resident gets an alcohol card for recording their quota:

If you purchase the entirety of your portion of beer, a hole is made (as can be seen in the photo above). But, if you buy only e.g. 23 bottles, a mark is made on the card, which enterprising residents have figured out how to scrub off. A reason to be very friendly with the employees at the alcohol store! Later, I asked whether their beer is sold in packs of 23, but alas, it retails in standard 24-packs…

A couple more interesting facts:

• Norwegian Airlines is a huge consumer of theirs, serving their beer on their flights.
• Until very recently, a huge expense for them was the disposal of the byproducts from brewing. They used to send it back to the mainland via boat, which as you might imagine wasn’t cheap. They have recently created a facility that allows it to be burned to heat water, and will soon be debuting shirts that say: “Drink more beer to give me longer showers.”
• The beer is made from normal Longyearbyen tap water, which means that it’s in part made from glacial water.

Dinner and Drinks

We ended our evening with dinner at Stationen and then drinks at Karlsberger Pub and the wonderfully named Svalbar:

Our guide the previous day had recommended Karlsberger, in part because the bar is actually dark inside despite the 24-hour sun. And we of course had to go to Svalbar! The latter had surprisingly good drinks, with a menu alluding to various popular movies.

From there, we bid good-bye to Duff and Dore, who had a 2:40AM flight from Longyearbyen to Oslo, a five-hour layover in Oslo, and then the long flight back to NYC. As I said before, I’m pretty surprised I was able to convince anyone to go on this trip from NYC.

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